Judith Ferster: Cooper will protect environment

I like your reasons for endorsing Roy Cooper (“For governor: Roy Cooper,” Oct. 22 editorial) for governor, but you didn’t say enough about his agenda to “protect the environment.” I’ve liked him since he sued the TVA so I could breathe well.

After North Carolina passed the Clean Smokestacks Act, a lot of our air pollution was coming from states to the west who still puffed out lethal toxins and particulates. So over a decade ago, Cooper pushed them to clean up their acts and our air.

In the N.C. Senate, he helped create the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to maintain the vegetative buffers for streams and rivers that protect water quality. Just last summer, he wrote to the legislature to get it to stop opposing the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, a significant attempt to slow global warning, which will work to our advantage if we direct it ourselves.

While attorney general, he has given grants to acquire land, another good water safeguard.

Protecting the environment makes North Carolina a good place to live and work, which McCrory’s shortsighted policies don’t do.

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Judith Ferster: Cooper will protect environment."